[systemd-devel] sd-bus dynamic property table

[Lennart Poettering]

On Mo, 13.05.19 08:25, Stephen Hemminger (stephen at networkplumber.org) wrote:

> I have a simple application that does provides property table for network
> devices (maybe it would be useful for a more complete example somewhere).
> The app is more to show how to use sdbus, not to replace network manager.
>
> The next step is to add ethtool statistics. Each type of network device will have
> different set of named properties. How could this be implemented?
> So far, the only idea would be to dynamically build a vtable then
> register it?
>
>
> # busctl tree  org.networkplumber.net1
> └─/org
>   └─/org/networkplumber
>     └─/org/networkplumber/net1
>       └─/org/networkplumber/net1/interface
>         ├─/org/networkplumber/net1/interface/eno1
>         ├─/org/networkplumber/net1/interface/eno2
>         ├─/org/networkplumber/net1/interface/ens11
>         └─/org/networkplumber/net1/interface/lo
>
> # busctl introspect org.networkplumber.net1 /org/networkplumber/net1/interface/eno1
> NAME                                TYPE      SIGNATURE RESULT/VALUE FLAGS
> org.freedesktop.DBus.Introspectable interface -         -            -
> .Introspect                         method    -         s            -
> org.freedesktop.DBus.Peer           interface -         -            -
> .GetMachineId                       method    -         s            -
> .Ping                               method    -         -            -
> org.freedesktop.DBus.Properties     interface -         -            -
> .Get                                method    ss        v            -
> .GetAll                             method    s         a{sv}        -
> .Set                                method    ssv       -            -
> .PropertiesChanged                  signal    sa{sv}as  -            -
> org.networkplumber.net1.Interface   interface -         -            -
> .carrier                            property  q         1            -
> .ifindex                            property  q         2            -
> .iflink                             property  q         2            -
> .mtu                                property  q         1500         -

Simon already replied to this, but let's add some further points:

dbus' object model is modelled after the object model of common
object-oriented programming languages, i.e. Java, C# and
suchlike. They generally have immutable interface definitions,
i.e. the vtables consisting of methods and properties never change,
but the implementation of them might, and objects might expose
different interfaces at the same time, in different combinations.

It's not unlike C in many ways: a C struct definition doesn't change
either, regardless what you apply it to.

Hence: you have multiple options to model what you are trying to do:
try to split things up into multiple interfaces so that you object can
implement them in varying combinations. Or simply define all
properties at all times, but define a special value (i.e. UINT64_MAX
for a uint64_t property or so) that indicates they don't actually
apply to the current object.

Lennart

--
Lennart Poettering, Berlin